People will apparently live in big glass-carbon fiber domes on the surface, with additional areas mined out below the surface by robots for "industrial" uses. "Initially, glass panes with carbon fiber frames to build geodesic domes on the surface, plus a lot of miner/tunneling droids," Musk wrote.

"With the latter, you can build out a huge amount of pressurized space for industrial operations and leave the glass domes for green living space."

The first crewed mission will be tasked with building a "rudimentary" base, as well as a propellant plant. The "Heart of Gold" spacecraft — named after the spaceship in "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" — won't come with any fuel for the return journey, so no one will be able to return to Earth unless the colonists can successfully extract propellant from the Martian atmosphere.